The Beggar
by Jaycie Victory
Summary: "Yukio was used to fighting for what she wanted." A fix-it fic for the movie "The Wolverine" (2013) because, as far as I'm concerned, Logan always chooses the wrong damn girl! Yukio pov. One-shot; complete.


**Fix-it fic for "The Wolverine" (2013) because, as far as I'm concerned, Logan always chooses the wrong damn girl!**

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><p><strong>The Beggar<strong>

Yukio was used to fighting for what she wanted.

Growing up on the streets of Tokyo had meant nothing in life came easily. Not food, not shelter, not safety.

She had been five when she foretold her parents' death; untested in her ability, unable to articulate the danger. But still she had begged them not to get in the car, not to take that journey. Just as she had begged them not to leave her as she had shaken their broken bodies.

It had made no difference; they had still died.

You would think she would've learnt her lesson, but within a few days she was begging again.

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><p><em>To begin with she aims too high, seeking compassion, integrity, love. She asks strangers if they will take her home with them. But quickly she learns such things are beyond her. <em>

_Exhausted, grieving and half-starved, she forgets the pride instilled in her and begs passersby for food. For coins. _

_For anything._

_She is young enough, small enough, for it to work, scraping enough to stay alive. _

_Over time she becomes an accomplished beggar. One day she so moves a stranger with her piteous pitch he gifts her with a ten Yen note. Flying high, beaming, she flees with her prize... _

_She is knocked down by a blow to the head from the ten-year-old boy who witnessed the scene._

_Half-stunned, she lies in the gutter, blood mingling with the rain._

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><p>Mariko had never had to beg; Mariko had never had to fight.<p>

Born to wealth, status and privilege, everything came easily to her.

Born with brains, beauty and a kind of helpless delicacy Yukio could never hope to attain, she swept all hearts before her.

She had never known a day's need or want in her life.

Yukio would've hated her if she hadn't loved her so deeply.

And yet...

_"He put hands on your sister. And now you want him? You will always be a beggar."_

Yukio had had to fight to bring Logan to Yashida; physically and verbally she had fought tooth and nail to convince him to come. It was the closest she had come to begging in more than a decade.

Mariko hadn't had to fight to bring Logan to her; she hadn't even had to ask. He had loved her of his own accord.

Everything came easily to Mariko.

Even Logan.

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><p><em>A girl her own age finds her in the gutter, yells for her grandfather.<em>

_In the blink of an eye, Yukio's whole world changes._

_Mariko asks, and Yashida takes her into his home, into his household. Once more she has honour; once more she has a name._

_That same day she meets Shingen. He gives her another name, with curling lip and blackened contempt: _beggar_. _

_Her newly revived honour cringes from the blow, feels the truth of it like a lash._

_From that day forward, Yukio swears she will fight, will dedicate herself to becoming a warrior. Protector of the Yashida line; defender of the Yashida name. She will fight for Yashida; she will fight for Mariko, with all the reverent love in her heart._

_From that day forward, she swears she will never beg for anything again._

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><p>And yet...<p>

And yet when Logan lay on the gurney, hand inside his own chest cavity, inches away from the death she had foreseen, she had found herself pleading. She wept, she entreated, she _begged _ him to stop, unable to bear the thought of this world without him in it.

He hadn't listened.

But he hadn't died.

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><p><em>She unfreezes from the stasis of horror, from the enervating pain of watching another loved one die. Logan is still alive... and still in danger.<em>

_Rising to her feet, she fights._

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><p>Yukio had sworn to protect the Yashida line, to defend the family's honour above all else. She had helped to kill Shinghen and stood by as his monstrous father died.<p>

As far as she was concerned the only person still worthy of that name was Mariko.

As far as she was concerned the only two people in her life worth fighting for were embracing in victory before her.

And yet...

And yet as she boarded the plane she looked back at Mariko, at the sister of her heart, if not her blood; she looked back, and she smiled. The smile conveyed her love, her pride, her unwavering service... but it also hinted at the glad feeling within that perilously bordered on triumph.

Everything came easily to Mariko, but it was Yukio who was by Logan's side.

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><p><em>Logan doesn't object as she follows him onto the plane, doesn't question her presence. <em>

_When she speaks, it's not to ask, and it's not to beg - she speaks with the assurance of simple truth. Because she knows. _

_She knows that he needs her._

_She will accompany him. She has found her place._

_She has found where she belongs._

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><p>Yukio was used to fighting for what she wanted.<p>

She would fight to the death for Logan.

For his life, and for his heart.

After all, she was his bodyguard.

_Fin_


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